Some Standards Please

An open letter to my fellow faculty members:

I am sick of students complaining that I am holding a class the day before a holiday, because YOU cancelled class.

I am sick of students wanting to know why my final isn’t ‘voluntary’ because YOU made your final ‘voluntary’.

I am sick of students complaining that there is too much reading for my class because YOU don’t assign much reading.

I am sick of students not doing the reading for my class because YOU didn’t hold them accountable for what you assigned.

I am sick of students complaining about their papers being graded for grammar because YOU don’t require high standards.

I am sick of students coming by my office with questions about your classes because YOU never manage to make it to office hours.

I am sick of students dropping my course when they learn about the 12-15 page research paper because YOU never assign anything longer than 3-5 pages.

I am sick of students not knowing how to write an essay exam because YOU only give multiple choice and short answer questions.

I am sick of students begging to watch a film in my class because YOU always show movies.

I am sick of students shopping around for the easiest courses because YOU give out all As.

I am sick of students texting in class and surfing the internet on their laptops because YOU don’t require them to put their phones/computers away before lecture starts.

I am sick of students thinking plagiarizing and cheating is no big deal, because YOU can’t be bothered to report them to the Provost.

I am sick of students not knowing what a scholarly source is because YOU never assign research papers.

Is it too much to expect a little help from my fellow faculty in maintaining some high standards for students?

Semester Goals

In an effort to live a more balanced and well-ordered life this semester I set some goals for myself. I'll try and do a update on Fridays to see how well I'm living up to these goals.

1. Get an hour of research done a day. I've set aside an hour a day to focus on my research/writing. I've also recruited a research buddy who is going to check in with me each day so that we can encourage each other to focus on our writing.
2. Work out for at least 30 minutes every day. I've recruited two work out partners. One for Tuesday/Thursday and one for Monday/Wednesday/Friday.
3. Leave the house by 7:40 each morning. If I can drop the kids off early enough, I can get to school by 8 and start gettign work done.
4. Get to bed by midnight each night. If I don't I won't be able to get up early enough to leave the house by 7:40.
5. Clean up the kitchen before I got to bed. Otherwise, I'll be depressed when I get up in the morning.
6. Put away lecture notes immediately after class finishes. Otherwise I'll have a pile to deal with later.
7. Update attendance same day that class is held. Otherwise, I'll have a pile to deal with later.
8. Answer or delete all email before leaving for the day.
9. Add any 'tasks' that come through email to TASK LIST then delete email by end of the day.
10. Immediately add meetings, etc. to calendar. So that if I 'forget' a meeting, it will be on purpose.
11. Devote at least one hour a day to grading whenever there is work to be graded. Maybe this way I won't always feel guilty and desperate. Besides most of my post-midnight evenings have occured because of trying to complete my grading.

How did I do this first week of school at meeting my goals??

1. Research: Mostly Fail. I only got in 1.5 of my 5 hours of research.
2. Work-out: WIN!
3. Leave House on Time: WIN!
4. In bed by midnight: Mostly win. I think one night it was about 12:30.
5. Clean Kitchen: FAIL - there is still a pan in the sink from dinner Monday.
6. Put away notes: WIN!
7. Attendance: Mostly win. Still have to enter two classes from today.
8. Email: Mostly win.
9. Task Lists: FAIL - I need to add a new tasks program to my iphone for this to work.
10. Meetings: WIN!
11. Grading: N/A :)

I'm giving myself 7 out of 10 for this week or a C-.

Circles Versus Rows

A new fall semester begins and so does the debate of whether circles or rows is the default position for desks in the classroom. The row adherents argue that rows are the standard position so if you want to use circles you must have your students move their desks back into rows before they leave the room.

The circle fans argue that circles provide a better educational environment. They also argue that no one sets the room up in circles for their students, so they shouldn't be forced to move them back to rows when they leave.

The row contingent has just now fired back with a NEW arguement for rows. They claim that it is easier for the cleaning staff to clean if the classroom is in rows. Therefore, circle faculty, even if they don't care about their fellow pro-row faculty, should put the classroom into rows when they finish class since it is more curteous toward the staff.

I'm in the middle of the row/circle debate - literally. The person who teaches before me is a circle fan. The person who teaches after me is a row fan. Being flexible, I can teach to a circle or a row. However, I'm going to get glared at by my row colleague for the circle even though I didn't have a hand in creating the circle. It also doesn't seem FAIR to require my students to re-establish the room into rows when we did not 'circle-ize it' to begin with.

It almost makes me long for the days when desks were bolted down to the floor.

It is really only the end of week four?

My return from sabbatical has been both refreshing and draining. I am enjoying being back in front of the classroom. There is really nothing better for one's ego than having a class of 30 students writing down every word that comes out of your mouth. At the same time, however, I don't have the stamina I had before sabbatical. By the time my last class of the day is finished I am ready to crawl back to my office and collapse.

Of course it doesn't help that I've taken over as department chair this year AND am on the executive committee of our faculty governing system. I thought I would be flush with power inherent in my new positions, instead I'm just overworked.

I would be looking forward to the weekend if it didn't contain the first REAL batch of grading for me to accomplish.

Professors Who Assign Their Own Books

The University of Utah has just come up with a policy passed by both the faculty and the administration that prohibits its faculty from collecting royalties if they assign their own books to the classes they are teaching. This policy is supposed to help assure students that s professor has assigned a book because it is the best in the field or covers a topic in a particularly important way, rather than because the prof. can make money from it. Utah Policy Would Restrict Profs' Royalties From Books - The Paper Trail (usnews.com)

During all my time in graduate school, only one professor ever assigned his own books to the class. I never suspected he was doing it for the royalties, but at the same time I never thought the books were particularly ground-breaking. One of my other graduate school professors argued against profs assigning their own books stating that you should be getting the professor's view on subject of the book from lectures/discussion and reading the books written by that same instructor did not expose students enough to varying viewpoints of a topic.

I probably lean toward the profs shouldn't assign their own books camp, but I don't think it is that much of an issues. I do, however, believe that the University of Utah's policy overlooks the fact that profs can make $$ off of their classes without assigning their own books. I remember several years ago a publisher offered some history faculty members around $1500 if they would 'review' a textbook and assign it to their classes so they could get student input as well. So even though the Utah policy cuts down the ability of profs to earn a little more money, at the same time it leaves untouched an entirely different method for profs to each cash off the backs of their students.

Where are all the history teachers this week?

If you guessed Lexington, KY you were right.

Why are there 1000+ history teachers in Lexington? We are grading the U.S. History A.P. Exams. It is my first time as a grader, but so far it hasn't been so bad. Apparently almost 200,000 students took the exam and there are close to 1 million essays that need to graded over the next seven days.

It was described by a colleague as a grading gulag, but I haven't felt that pain yet. Of course, being the first day we spent 1/2 the time trying to learn how to grade consistently with everyone else. We'll see how mind-numbing it becomes tomorrow.

I'm grading a question about the Second Great Awakening and it's connection to things like abolition and temperance. Best line from a paper I've seen today: "Drinking makes people feel good, and the Puritans weren't down with that."

History is a Weapon

I stumbled across an online site today titled: History is a Weapon. The introduction to the site makes a statement with which most historians would agree.

It claims: History isn't what happened, but a story of what happened. And there are always different versions, different stories, about the same events. One version might revolve mainly around a specific set of facts while another version might minimize them or not include them at all.

Things get a little bit more uncomfortable for those of us who teach history a couple of paragraphs later, when the site's editors maintain: The very selection of which histories to teach in a society shapes our view of how what is came to be and, in turn, what we understand as possible. This choice of which history to teach can never be "neutral" or "objective." Those who choose, either following a set agenda or guided by hidden prejudices, serve their interests. Their interests could be to continue this world as it now stands or to make a new world.

Okay, yes what someone decides to lecture about and how they present that material is a bit subjective and it can benefit or hinder certain ideologies. But at the same time history that is published by university presses and taught on college campuses around the nation is not essentially an ideological basketball that gets passed back and forth between two teams. There is a little something called the historical paradigm, which does limit or constrain the dialogue that historians can engage. For example, you are not going to get taken seriously by colleagues, get a book deal with a university press, or even get hired in the first place if you are a holocaust denier.

If the historical paradigm isn't enough to ensure that history is more than just a 'story', there is a community of scholars in the discipline, who try to keep each other honest. Should one's interpretation not line up with the historical evidence this community, in book reviews, blogs, and at conferences, does not hesitate to challenge others' presentations.

While History is a Weapon is correct about history being a story and I even agree with them that people should examine the past for themselves by reading primary sources and seeing what opinions or stories might have been left out of their historical educations, at the same time, history is more than just a story and more than just twisted or ideologically driven interpretation. In fact, I would argue that history is a weapon because of its very real relationship to what actually occurred in the past. Something that literature or philosophy or fine arts can't claim.

Student Calls Police After Instructor Confiscates Cell Phone That Rung during Class

Apparently, the police in West Lafayette, IN showed up at a business law class after a student reported the instructor for stealing his cell phone. The instructor (who is also a judge in Lafayette) confiscated the phone for ringing during class, but refused to return it immediately after the class ended. He said he was going to give it to the Dean of Students and that it could be picked up there. (Sounds good to me - inconvenience the student the same way he inconvenienced the entire class for letting his cell phone ring.) This idea didn't sit well with the student (I'm guessing a business major), who called the police. The complaint was turned over to a Lafayette prosecutor who dismissed the charges. You can read the story here.

I am left with several impressions after reading this news article.

1. The instructor showed great nerve in not only taking the phone, but also not giving it back immediately. I do hope he had the cell phone policy in his syllabus, however, since that seems to be the end-all-be-all of classroom disputes.

2. The student showed great nerve in calling the cops on his instructor. It must have been quite a sight to see the student's righteous indignation. Although, I think the student probably went too far and should have sucked it up and gone to the Dean of Students to retrieve his phone. I am kind of proud that s/he handled it himself and didn't call mommy or daddy to save him.

3. I imagine that next class session was pretty awkward. Do you drop the class after accusing the instructor of stealing and trying to get him arrested? Or do you sit tight knowing that you got a perfect claim for retaliation if you don't get the grade you wanted in class.

4. Where did the student get the phone to call the cops? Did s/he borrow it from a fellow classmate? Did the person who loaned the phone know what it was going to be used for? How awkward is it for this classmate to stay in the business law course?

Personally, I don't have a policy on cell phones in class. Inevitably a few go off every semester, but I just ignore them or wait until they have stopped ringing (maybe do a little dance if the tune is particularly good) before continuing with my lecture. I have a colleague, however, who takes 1% off a student's final class grade every time his or her cell phone rings in class. That is pretty hard core, but effective. I think he's only had 1 cell phone ring in the 3+ years he's had the policy.